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Ted Sarandos

ARCHETYPE

The Disruptor

Contrarian and drawn to the edge; challenges the settled answer.

Ted Sarandos reads as The Disruptor because he rewired an entire industry from the inside, arriving not as a technologist but as a video store clerk who understood what audiences actually wanted. As Netflix co-chief executive, he bet on original content at massive scale before the economics were proven and greenlit globally diverse programming while Hollywood was still thinking locally. He moves fast enough, and bets boldly enough, that competitors are still catching up.

IN THEIR WORDS, WHY DISRUPTOR

When I met Reid in 1999, he describes Netflix pretty much like it is right now. This was at a time when literally no entertainment was coming into the home on the internet.

REFLECTING ON NETFLIX'S FOUNDING VISION

If it does work, we could fundamentally change the course of the business. I looked at it as a classic risk reward — yes, this is a lot of money, but the upside was transformational.

DEFENDING THE HOUSE OF CARDS BET

I hope it will be that I was the guy who put the audience first. Think about how will you please the audience first — we'll build a business model around it after.

DESCRIBING DESIRED LEGACY

THE DAVID RUBENSTEIN SHOW

The David Rubenstein Show: “Ted Sarandos”

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Ted's full six-dimension Leadership Index profile is held pending their validation. The archetype shown is the OTA analyst-rated read. How we read a leader →

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